Jedi Jared

Jared's birthday was on a Saturday this year, but Alex was out of town that day we were busy.  So we did his big party the next weekend.  On his birthday, he got his requested breakfast and dinner.  I made pigs in a blanket to take for lunch.  I say "take" because they went over to a friend's house while I went to a church speaker/luncheon.  He had a great time because he got to play video games.  In the afternoon, he got to go to a superhero birthday party for one of his church friends (thus the Batman costume and black mark on his face).  So he did get cake on his birthday, just not his own birthday cake.  After McDonald's we watched a movie and had popcorn and ice cream. Pretty fun day.  He opened presents in the morning.  He knew he was getting Jabba's Palace (a big expensive Lego set) because we made him chip in some of his savings to buy it.  He was looking forward to opening it.  

This was Jared's year to do a friend party, so we invited 10 kids.  Only 1 wasn't able to come, but a sister came along with her brothers.  So there ended up being 14 kids with Jared, Nathan, Weston, and Owen included.  It was a little chaotic with 14 kids running around with lightsabers!  We survived, and I think everyone had fun.  

The cake was a bit of a flop.  I tried to do marshmallow fondant lettering, and it came out awful.  And then the whole cake sort of melted.  The death star looking thing fell off completely (I just plopped it back on) and the words started drooping too.  It was pretty shabby looking, but it was yummy at least.  I love how even 7 year olds still get cake all over their face.   

I pulled some game ideas off Pinterest - shooting the stormtrooper, a Sith and Jedi freeze tag game, keep the balloon up with a lightsaber, and a pinata.  The pinata was my best creation for this party and super easy too.  No papier mache involved - just a paper bag and crepe paper streamer glued on.  I printed off a Darth Vader head and made a wrapping paper red lightsaber.  Only Nathan didn't get a chance to hit the Pinata before it burst.  So it made it through 13 kids.  There were "Darkside Skittles" inside the Pinata, along with a few other sweets.  I found the light batons on Amazon.  I just added some black tape.  Luckily they sent me the wrong ones (multi-colored) the first time around, so they sent me the correct ones (red, green, and blue) and said to keep the wrong batch.  I ended up with 24 light batons, and we went through just about that many.  They weren't designed to be used as weapons...      

After games and presents, we had pizza, followed by cake, movie, and popcorn.  They watched the animated Star Wars Clone Wars.  I was surprised they actually watched for an hour before running off to play.  They were eating Skittles while watching the movie - sugar high!  

The party seemed to be a success!  (I am glad it's over though.)